JOHN McCRADY

John McCrady is one of the most important Louisiana artists of the 20th Century. Born in 1911 in rural Mississippi, McCrady studied at the University of Mississippi, the Art Students League of New York and the University of Pennsylvania. His paintings of Southern history and culture received much praise, and he soon opened the John McCrady Art School in New Orleans in 1942. Among his students were Roland Golden and Robert Rucker.

McCrady's paintings are considered to be some of the most important paintings of Southern art, focusing largely on rural and historical themes. He painted the lives of the plantation workers and the poor of New Orleans, and his WPA posters received national attention were ultimately responsible in his reception of the Guggenheim Fellowship.